Jamie Lidell: Prince dissed my suit but I still love him

Jamie Lidell was inspired by Prince – but meeting him was a disappointment (Picture: AFP/Getty Images)

Electro-funk musician Jamie Lidell talks to Metro about his self-titled new album, the challenge of writing a ‘normal’ song and why you should never meet your musical idols.

Restless soul and Brit electro-funk dude Jamie Lidell is easy to pick out in the low-lit lobby of a hotel in Shoreditch, east London. He’s a tall, animated figure, chatting away with a slightly transatlantic twang. Having spent stints living in Brighton, Berlin and New York, he’s more recently relocated to Nashville, where he recorded his latest album, the simply titled, irrepressibly catchy Jamie Lidell.

‘I must like being on the move,’ admits Lidell, as he orders a zingy mint tea. ‘I grew up in a small hamlet in England and all the years I spent there, I’d dream what life would be like outside.

‘My fascination with sound started early on, I just went crazy after being cooped up in a tiny environment. I left for university in Bristol when all this music such as Portishead was going on in the city and I was like: “What do I do now?”.’

Lidell’s self-titled new album is released in February (Picture: Warp Records)

What Lidell did next included running electronic club nights with Brighton DJ/producer Cristian Vogel (the pair collaborated as Super Collider) and creating his own soul-infused beats. He signed to innovative Sheffield label Warp (home of electronic pioneers including Aphex Twin and Squarepusher) for his 2005 album, Multiply, and honed his reputation as a one-man psychedelic soul revue, both richly vocal and excitingly offbeat.

‘I can blame Prince for a lot of this; he was my idol,’ grins Lidell, before launching into a sore tale of why you should never meet your heroes. ‘I was introduced to Prince backstage at the Montreux Jazz Festival a couple of years ago – he was there with Quincy Jones. Janelle Monáe, who’d opened for me on tour, was like: “Oh Jamie, you gotta meet Prince”. I was like: “Aaaah…” I was completely frozen, hopeless.

‘Prince wouldn’t acknowledge my presence or make eye contact at all but Janelle pursued it further: “You saw Jamie’s show in LA.” And Prince said: “Yeah, I would’ve remembered that suit” – he dissed my suit! Meanwhile, he was wearing a bloody yoga outfit.

‘At one point, Quincy patted Prince on the head, which was quite satisfying.’ Lidell shrugs: ‘At the time, it felt awful but looking back, it seems perfectly apt that Prince was an a***hole to me. I still love him.’
Lidell indulges his love of Prince-style funk and the classic feel of 1980s producers Jam & Lewis on the bold grooves of his latest album, including the poppy blast of tracks such as Big Love and I’m Selfish, although he also brings heavy abstract soul into play on the current single What A Shame.

Strictly speaking, Jamie Lidell isn’t his first self-titled collection –he released the acclaimed Jim in 2008 – but he insists: ‘This album is the closest I’ve come to a whole representation: it gets the electronics, the acoustic side and the pop sound crammed in there. It came from the luxury of having all these great machines and a great house in Nashville to record in.

‘I went through a phase where I tried to work out who I appeal to. As long as you fixate on that, a part of you dies.’

In contrast, Lidell’s creative ventures are definitely thriving. He’s set to embark on an international tour, complete with dazzling visuals from digital artists Flat-e Collective (who designed the ‘exploding head’ imagery for What A Shame), and a pretty savvy sense of adventure. ‘I like knowing how to recover when things go wrong,’ he says. ‘Playing live electronic music is like surfing: you’ve got to go out into the rough sea, get on the board and fall off.’

He’s also been recording with both German ‘acoustic techno’ trio Brandt Brauer Frick and house producer Tensnake.

‘I struggle to write a “normal” song – I just piece things together,’ says Lidell, good-naturedly. ‘But when someone sends me a beat that sounds good, it just flows.’

He still regards that energy as transformative. ‘When you move into a new place and it’s unfurnished and barren, you put on music and it fills the air and changes everything,’ he says. ‘You’re playing with shamanic forces; you can freak people out or you can really draw them in. For now, I’m home.’

What A Shame (Warp) is out on Monday, followed by the album Jamie Lidell on Feb 18. Jamie Lidell’s world tour begins Mar 8 at London’s Heaven. www.jamielidell.com